Hawking is an example of how universal health care can actually work. Having lived under the National Health Service when he was stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, he survived and has since become one of the world's most distinguished scientists. In an editorial appearing in Investor's Business Daily an attempt was made to use him as an example of how universal health care is bad, saying he would have died under the NHS; they did not do enough research to determine that Hawking lived under the NHS most of his life (Hawking was born in 1942 the NHS was established in 1948 well before Hawking became sick). Hawking is still alive [2] and is a fierce defender of the NHS, stating he would not have survived without it.

The reason many Conservatives hate Hawking is because by using science and reason, two things Conservatives hate, he has shown God is unnecessary to explain things. Hawking is an atheist or possibly a pantheist. [3]